Article published In:
BabelVol. 60:4 (2014) ► pp.464–486
Towards more positive environments
A fieldwork on the importance of pragmalinguistics in mental health interpreting
This paper is a fieldwork study framed in the community interpreting branch of Translation and Interpreting Studies, a current dealing with mediated interactions in Public Services. In accordance with the scope of this discipline, the following pages focus on highlighting the importance of pragmatic theories in an interlinguistic, triangular communication occurring within mental health consultations. The fundamental idea is to combine some of the most relevant pragmatic principles in order to establish an ideal communicative frame we can subsequently contrast with the reality of interlinguistic interactions in mental health settings. In consequence, the first part of the paper seeks to portray the importance of Pragmalinguistics in this context by providing a theoretical frame which is also used as the base for formulating certain questions that arise due to its implications for the interpreting process. These issues are the pillars for two brief questionnaires: the first one is addressed both to novice and experienced interpreters whereas the second set of questions was distributed among mental health professionals. The analysis of the survey results seeks to achieve three main objectives:
i) to determine agreement and disagreement points between both parties;
ii) to combine their opinions with the aforementioned theoretical bases in order to establish certain guidelines and solutions that may improve communication;
iii) to define the interpreter’s role within our field of study.
References
American Psychological Association
2000 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition: DSM-IV-TR. Washington, DC: Author.
Baker, Mona
2011 In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation, 2nd edition. London-New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Baylav, Akgul
2003 “
Issues of Language Provision in Health Care Services.” In
Working with interpreters in Mental Health, ed. by
Rachel Tribe and
Hitesh Raval, 69–77. East Sussex: Routledge.
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson
2007 Politeness: Some Universals on Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cummings, Louise
2005 Pragmatics: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
DeVoe, Jennifer E., Lorraine S. Wallace, and George E. Fryer Jr
2009 “
Measuring Patients’ Perceptions of Communication with Healthcare Providers: Do Differences in Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics Matter?”
Health Expectations 12 (1): 70–80.
Eley, Diann et al.
2006 “
Tools and Methodologies for Investigating the Mental Health Needs of Indigenous Patients: It’s about Communication.”
Australasian Psychiatry 14 (1): 33–37.
Escandell Vidal, Mª Victoria
1993 Introducción a la Pragmática. Barcelona: Anthropos.
Granger, Emily, and Martyn Baker
2003 “
The role and Experience of Interpreters.” In
Working with Interpreters in Mental Health, ed. by
Rachel Tribe and
Hitesh Raval, 99–122. East Sussex: Routledge.
Grice, Herbert P
1975 “
Logic and Conversation.” In
Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 3: Speech Acts, ed. by
Peter Cole and
Jerry L. Morgan, 41–58. New York: Academic Press.
Grundy, Peter
2000 Doing Pragmatics, 2nd edition. London: Hodder Arnold.
Hudelson, Patricia
2004 “
Improving Patient–Provider Communication: Insights from Interpreters.”
Family Practice 22 (2): 311–316.
Hsieh, Elaine
2010 “
Provider-interpreter Collaboration in Bilingual Health Care: Competitions of Control over Interpreter-mediated Interactions.”
Patient Education and Counselling 78(2): 154–159.
Jorm, Anthony F
2000 “
Mental Health Literacy: Public Knowledge and Beliefs about Mental Disorders.”
The British Journal of Psychiatry 1771: 396–401.
Kravitz, Richard, et al.
2000 “
Comparing the Use of Physician Time and Health Care Resources among Patients Speaking English, Spanish, and Russian.”
Medical Care 381: 728–738.
Leech, Geoffrey N
1989 Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.
Leonard, Michael, S. Graham, and Doug Bonacum
2004 “
The Human Factor: The Critical Importance of Effective Teamwork and Communication in Providing Safe Care.”
BMJ Quality and Safety 13 (1): 85–90.
Lesch, Harold
1999 “
Community Translation: Right or Privilege?” In
Liaison Interpreting in the Community, ed. by
Mabel Erasmus, 90–98. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
Maguire, Peter
1984 “
Communication Skills and Patient Care.” In
Health Care and Human Behaviour, ed. by
Andrew Steptoe and
Andrew Matthews, 153–173. London: Academic Press.
Messent, Philip
2003 “
From Postmen to Makers of Meaning: A Model for Collaborative Work between Clinicians and Interpreters.” In
Working with Interpreters in Mental Health, ed. by
Rachel Tribe and
Hitesh Raval, 135–151. East Sussex: Routledge.
Mey, Jacob L
2001 Pragmatics: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Mudarikiri, Maxwell. M
2003 “
Working with the Interpreters in Adult Mental Health.” In
Working with Interpreters in Mental Health, ed. by
Rachel Tribe and
Hitesh Raval, 182–198. East Sussex: Routledge.
Raval, Hitesh
2003 “
An Overview of the Issues in the Work with Interpreters.” In
Working with interpreters in Mental Health, ed. by
Rachel Tribe and
Hitesh Raval, 8–30. East Sussex: Routledge.
Razban, Minoo
2003 “
An Interpreter’s Perspective.” In
Working with Interpreters in Mental Health, ed. by
Rachel Tribe and
Hitesh Raval, 92–98. East Sussex: Routledge.
Roe, Donald L., and Connie E. Roe
1991 “
The Third Party: Using Interpreters for the Deaf in Counselling Situations.”
Journal of Mental Health Counselling 13 (1): 91–105.
Salaets, Heidi, and Jan Van Gutch
2008 “
Perceptions of a Profession.” In
Crossing Borders in Community Interpreting, ed. by
Carmen Valero Garcés and
Anne Martin, 267–288. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
Sales, Dora
2006 “
Mapa de situación de la Traducción/Interpretación en los Servicios Públicos y la Mediación Intercultural en la Comunidad Valenciana y la Región de Murcia.”
Nuevo Mapa Lingüístico y Cultural de España: Retos del Siglo XXI en Comunicación Intercultural. RESLA, Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada, volumen monográfico, 85–109.
Schulze, Beate, and Matthias C. Angermeyer
2003 “
Subjective Experiences of Stigma. A Focus Group Study of Schizophrenic Patients, their Relatives and Mental Health Professionals.”
Social Science and Medicine 561: 299–312.
Shattell, Mona M. et al.
2006 “
She Took the Time to Make Sure She Understood: Mental Health Patients’ Experiences of being Understood.”
Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 20 (5): 234–241.
Sperber, Dan, and Deidre Wilson
2002 “
Pragmatics, Modularity and Mind-reading.”
Mind and Language 17 (1–2): 3–23.
Stewart, Moira A
1995 “
Effective Physician -Patient Communication and Health Outcomes: A Review.”
CMAJ 152 (9): 1423–1433.
Tribe, Rachel, and Marsha Sanders
2003 “
Training Issues for Interpreters.” In
Working with interpreters in Mental Health, ed. by
Rachel Tribe and
Hitesh Raval, 54–69. East Sussex: Routledge.
Tribe, Rachel, and Jean Morrissey
2004 “
Good Practice Issues in Working with Interpreters in Mental Health.”
Intervention, the International Journal of Mental Health 2 (2): 129–142.
Verschueren, Jef
1999 Understanding Pragmatics. London; New York: Arnold.
Wadensjö, Cecilia
1995 “
Dialogue Interpreting and the Distribution of Responsibility.”
Hermes: Journal of Linguistics 141: 111–131.
Wadensjö, Cecilia
1998 “
Community Interpreting.” In
Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies, ed. by
Mona Baker, 33–37. London; New York: Routledge.
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Liu, Yubo & Wei Zhang
2019.
Unity in diversity: mapping healthcare interpreting studies (2007-2017).
Medical Education Online 24:1
► pp. 1579559 ff.
Álvaro Aranda, Cristina, Raquel Lázaro Gutiérrez & Shuangyu Li
2021.
Towards a collaborative structure of interpreter-mediated medical consultations: Complementing functions between healthcare interpreters and providers.
Social Science & Medicine 269
► pp. 113529 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.